Transcripts For WRC Viewpoint 20240621 : vimarsana.com

He boasted about more competitive salaries and these embarked on the town halls hoping to convince residents to support his tax increase and encourage their Council Members to do the same. All while there was a more than 35year tax cap in place in prince georges. Then he changed the proposal, some would say in the 11th hour, requesting 65 million in additional funding pretty much cutting his initial request in half. In the end, the council all but ignored bakers request and approved a 4 property tax increase that generates 34 million. That additional funding will be used for teacher pensions that the state has now passed do you know to the county. But it offers no new programs or increased salary for teachers. That budget is now back in the hands of the county executive and he has the power of line item veto. He has until june 16th to make any changes. This morning were hoping to get more insight into the county executives reasons behind that tax proposal, where it all went wrong for him. And what he plans on presenting to the council in just a few weeks. So thank you again. Thank you. You did a good job of recapping that. It was a lot. And it was a big proposal. But what i said when i introduced the proposal to the council, if you look at Prince Georges County, we are growing in every other direction. You know, we have 6 billion for Economic Development thats happening. Crime is down. We are dealing with health care. The only area were falling behind is education and in order for us to catch up after not making an investment for 35 years in our Education System was to put 133 million into the system. So that we can move from the bottom of the state where were 23 out of 24 up to the top ten. Now, clearly after doing eight or nine town hall meetings, listening to everybody, staying at some of these meetings until 12 00 at night, listening to residents, they raised a number of concerns that we took seriously. One they said well, what happened to the casino money . I thought that was supposed to go to education and we talked about that. That money wont come online to the county until around the year 2017, 2020. I said well, why dont we put a tax cap on it . Why dont we put a sunset on the provision for the increase in property taxes . Which we offered to the county council in the and the day before they took a vote. We also said listen, we understand people, you know, may be a little leery about 7 in terms of Education Funding being in this in terms of a tax i mean, 15 . Why dont we lower that to 7 , that gives us half. Gives us 65 million to invest in our School System. Which is the number i gave to the county council. I said give us 75 million additional money that will bring us at least to the top 15 in this state and will get the county get the state the county moving. What the county council did is its almost like they didnt listen to any of the debate that was going on. In these town hall meetings. Instead they came back with a 4 property tax increase or 5 if you consider parking and planning which doesnt invest in education at all. Well, lets discuss about what the chair said at the county council. The county residents cannot afford it. And part of what hes saying here is backed up by at least one of the judges in the Prince Georges County courthouse who testified during budget hearings and said she is still seeing up to 500 cases dealing with foreclosure in Prince Georges County. She is saying that with folks having these kind of Financial Issues its major issue. How do you convince county residents to pay higher taxes when theyre well, if the county cant afford it then you certainly dont do a property tax increase for park and planning. If we cant afford an increase, you certainly dont do it for park and planning. And if your county cant afford it dont do a 4 cent increase in education that wont help us in education. So either its one way or the other. They did the worst possible thing. They raised peoples property taxes but they dont have any of the money go toward our School System. Thats something i said to them you know, is unacceptable to me. Well, one of the things that the chair said and also other Council Members, like park and planning is having some serious issues with finances. At some point they have to have their structure shored up and these programs, the parents dont want the programs cut. It goes back to the original question can we afford it . Its belt tightening time. If were going to invest, we invest in education because thats going to move the Property Values because that will attract people to the county and businesses. You dont raise taxes to build another park. We have one of the best park systems in the nation in Prince Georges County. Well, it sounds to me like what theyre trying to do is maintain what we have at this point. Well continue this discussion and also discuss the law this some folks are saying has been violated by even proposing to raise taxes without taking it to the voters. Please stay with us. Well have more viewpoint coming up in a bit. They make Little Hearts happy and big hearts happy too because as part of a heart healthy diet those delicious oats in cheerios can help lower cholesterol. Cheerios. How can something so little. Help you do something so big. There are a lot of channels on your tv but only so many you want to watch what if you could pay for the types of channels you want and not the ones you dont now, fios brings you a totally new way to customize your tv. Starting at 74. 99 per month with no annual contract. Get custom tv, including internet and phone. Price guaranteed for two years. Or from now until june 13th get a 400 visa prepaid card when you sign a 2 year agreement. Go to getfios. Com. Cable just gives you channels. Fios gives you choice. Call the Verizon Center for customers with disabilities at 800. 974. 6006 tty v music throughout sfx smash sfx roar sfx roar sfx engine roars good morning, welcome back to viewpoint. We are talking with Prince Georges County executive Rushern Baker about his proposed tax increase and where that proposal stands now. Lets talk a little bit about the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. Sure. Now, the letter of the law, due to a state loophole, gave you the opportunity to raise taxes in Prince Georges County to deal with the maintenance of effort in education. Right. Now, the spirit of the law is that prince georgens have said they want all new taxes to come to the ballot. They want to vote and they dont want their Public Officials putting new taxes on them without the opportunity to do it. So while the letter of the law says that it was okay for you to make this tax proposal, what about the spirit of the law . And why not take it to the ballot . Let me do two things. First of all, what i propose to the council was the increase in Education Funding where they got that funding from is up to them. What i said is here are the tools that we have, that the state has given us to raise revenues. One of those was to go beyond the tax cap and in just for education. And the reason that doesnt violate the spirit or the letter of the law is the legislature decided in 2012 that places like Prince Georges County, its not just Prince Georges County. There are some other counties out there that had these tax caps but were getting the majority of their funding from the state. That means theyre getting the majority of their funding for fair Education System from other parts of the state, whether it was Montgomery County, anne arundel county. The state said were tired of doing that. Were not going to fund you to the tune we have been funding you. If you want to invest in your School System like Montgomery County or Howard County or any of these other places, youre going to have to use your own revenues. So when we went back and said, well, we cant, we have a tax cap the voters voted on. They said you cant the voters of Prince Georges County said you cant raise your taxes. The state changed that. And said, yes, you can. Just for education though. You can go above the tax cap for education only. Well, lets discuss the buyin. Because you had Senior Citizens in Prince Georges County who no longer have children in the school and you have a number of residents with their children in private schools as well. Youre saying we need to raise property taxes to support the School System and there are some who feel they dont have a stake in it. Did you fail in making it clear that they do . What are your thoughts . No, no i dont think we did. I think people got it. When we went to the town hall meetings, people didnt say we dont understand why youre asking us to raise the revenues. There were two pertinent questions that they missed. If youre going to do this, it should be an amount that makes an impact on the School System to move it up. Dont take my money and put it down a black hole. Thats why we asked for the amount of 133 million or 65 million that will take us from the bottom to the top. You know so residents had a problem with that. They said listen, then they said, well, if you start getting revenues in from all these development projects, do we get a tax release . Will you reduce our property taxes . We heard them and thats why we put the sunset on there. We know that the casino and other things are coming in around 2018, 2020, why dont we sunset that and reduce the property taxes we have there. You know, residents would get a break. What the council did was the worst of all possible, you know what chairman franklin did and the council was the worst of all possible choices. They raised property taxes on people that arent going to improve the School System, and theyre there forever. Theres not a sunset. Lets talk about this and we can continue this conversation more in a second. But i want to ask you about the idea of Prince Georges County having the highest taxes in this region. Thats right. Higher than the district of columbia, higher than Montgomery County, but the lowest return in property value. Its a hard sell. No, it is. But convincing them our jobs as leaders is to tell the truth. If you want your Property Values to go up if you want to attract better businesses you need better schools. We are talking about the number of cabinet officials around this region who actually live in Montgomery County and the number who live in Prince Georges County. He can go to a town hall meeting, hell have cabinet level officials in his county. The reason is because they look at the School System. The School System helps the value of your properties. The School System attracts people who have kids. Thats what we have to do. Thats the hard thing for Prince Georges County. What i heard clear from people was dont just take my money and put it in the School System i dont want to pay more and were still 23 out of 24. Well, well take a commercial break and well have a conversation about the Political Capital being spent in this push for higher taxes in Prince Georges County. You wish your dog could fight off fleas and ticks. But since he cant. You rely on frontline plus. Because frontline plus unleashes a deadly killing force to kill fleas and ticks, plus flea eggs and larvae, preventing a new infestation. Its protection lasts a full 30 days. No wonder frontline plus is the 1 choice of vets for their pets and yours. After all, your dog is a lover not a fighter. Frontline plus. The vets 1 choice. Good morning. Thank you for joining us for viewpoint. Our guest for this morning is Prince Georges County executive Rushern Baker. We are talking taxes and his proposal for a tax increase in Prince Georges County. During your fight, you had some support from parents and some organizations that said we did. But you also didnt have support from a number of people on the county council. Right. And its been pretty tough since they decided to decrease your initial request there have been some words exchanged. Do you believe there are some hurt feelings it will be difficult to move on after its unusual in Prince Georges County. Well, we have been together on issues throughout the my term as county executive. On this critical issue, i think the chairman franklin said it in his statement. He said i was myopic about education. That i was single focused on education and hes correct. Thats the single most important issue facing us in Prince Georges County. The difference is where do we improve the education . I think the Property Values and people will move in. What theyre banking on is i said theyre myopic about park and planning. They think thats the most important thing there. They chose to raise peoples property taxes for park and planning but refused to invest in education. Thats a big fight. Thats a big difference of opinion. I am looking at overall whats going to make the county move forward. Thats my job as county executive to figure out how we move the county forward and make sure if i ask people to invest their hard earned tax dollars theyre going to invest in something thats going to improve the Education System and improve their lives. So yes, we have a big disagreement. There are some who would say that the board of education, the School System as a whole has not mattered, 1 billion, we are talking about giving them more money. Have we looked at how they have used the money so far . Theyre wait on the audit to talk about the finances and how the county has been spending the thats an excellent question and it did come up. But from the Council Members, the only person that gave us a detailed proposal that as dressed some of the addressed some of the issues is Council Member mary layman. She came back and said, heres how we can reduce the amount that youve proposed, mr. County executive. I disagreed with her but it was detailed about moving the School System forward. Chairman franklin and the rest of the council didnt do that. They simply gave a number of a tax increase that wont move School Systems forward. What we showed them is dr. Maxwell cut 70 million of waste when he came in. Hes one of the best superintendents in the nation. They proved to us they were making progress. If they hadnt, i wouldnt have asked people to invest 133 million in the School System. So that question was answered. So that was not what was holding the council up. All right. Lets talk about lineitem veto because you have the opportunity over the next few weeks to look at what the council has passed on to you and if you would like, you can bring up the tax proposal again. What are you going to do . Well, heres the things im faced with. The council has already passed a tax increase on people. The question for me is does for 34 million in education spending that wont move us from 23 up to the top 15 is that a good use of taxpayers money . Thats one i have to deal with. The other is on park and planning. Do i think its prudent given where we are financially to raise peoples property taxes to build another Community Center . So thats what im weighing, you know, i have to determine whether in fact those are Good Investments of peoples money. I have to tell you on the park and planning, i said from the very beginning i did not think this is the time to do it. I dont think you can ask people for the same reasons they didnt want to increase it for education, i dont think you can ask them to increase it for park and planning. Are you going to say lets raise property taxes again . No, the question is do i cut cut do i veto the budget that they gave, because they already raised property tax. I want to be clear to people. The county council has raised the property taxes and the question is will it change Prince Georges County Education System and is it the prudent thing to do in the county . I have to determine if i can accept that property tax increase or reject it. And what are we going to do . Well, were going to study what they have given us and determine whats in the best interest of those in Prince Georges County. We have to wait and see whats going to happen with that budget and what youre going to take out of it. And possibly leave in it. Is there anything in what the council gave you that you liked . Yeah, there are things that we agree on. What we disagree on, and its a fundamental disagree, its a future of Prince Georges County and what will get us there. There are things we agree on that well leave in the budget. Well talk about the finances of the county and where it stands right now. Youre watching viewpoint. Well be back in a moment. There are a lot of channels on your tv but only so many you want to watch what if you could pay for the types of channels you want and not the ones you dont now, fios brings you a totally new way to customize your tv. Starting at 74. 99 per month with no annual contract. Get custom tv, including internet and phone. Price guaranteed for two years. Or from now until june 13th get a 400 visa prepaid card when you sign a 2 year agreement. Go to getfios. Com. Cable just gives you channels. Fios gives you choice. Call the Verizon Center for customers with disabilities at 800. 974. 6006 tty v im tracee wilkins. Thank you for joining us for viewpoint where our guest today is Prince Georges County executive Rushern Baker. Well talk about the finances of the county and where it stands right now. The county has all but used up its Rainy Day Fund for budget gaps and other reasons as well. There is now 4 million in cash reserves down from 116 million in 2010. This is the fund that has protected the countys aaa bond rating. Is the county at risk of losing the bond rating that allows the county to borrow for lower amounts of interest . We certainly could be. I mean, it was an issue that was brought up by wall street last year when we used onetime money. Thats what the Rainy Day Fund is to pay for on going expenses. One of the reasons i proposed to the county council and the budget that we do 110 layoffs and five days of furloughs was we simply dont have the money. We have cut every department by 5 in the county. We have used as much of our Rainy Day Fund as we possibly could without jeopardizing it. Now, the council sent me a budget that restored the 110 layoffs and five days of furloughs and they used onetime money to pay for it. For on going costs and they asked for additional 2 cut across the board in terms of department. I dont know how you do that. I mean, were looking at it and trying to figure out how do you do that without taking positions out, how do you not let people go . So were its serious times. Lets ask the question that a lot of folks are wondering. Is Prince Georges County in financial trouble . Theres still more money to come if the county gets the sdi, theres a certain amount of money for that. The purple line the governor is asking to add more money to that. The county would like that. We have the Regional Medical center coming on line. A lot of money going out. What you just named is a lot of money thats going to be coming in. Weve got 6 billion worth of finances that are projects that are coming in. We have money in here. So are we in financial trouble, no. But what it means is weve got to do like every other person out there and that is live within our means. Thats what we were thats what i was saying to the council. We have to live within our means. That means sometimes you know what, you cant buy that shoe you know shoes that you want. This is not the time for that. You have to be fiscally conservative. You cant use that money that you saved up for that for your house. You cant use your mortgage money to go out and buy starbucks. Thats what were saying. It doesnt mean you cant buy starbucks down the road because youre going to get an increase in your job. I mean, were the place to be. We have all these projects you just named that are coming to the county. Theyre going to be here. You know, we have a great well, we dont know about the fbi. The fbi is the only one, but the 1. 2 billion development at National Harbor is coming here. University town center which is right off the Arts District in hyattsville which is phenomenal. It will be a huge development, great place to live. We are building a new hotel and Conference Center whole foods is coming here. We not only have one harris teeter, but two and possibly more. So we have great stuff coming in. Let me ask you a couple of questions and what is going to be our lightning round. First of all, you have supported holman in his run for the senate and who are you going to support . Who do you want to see in congress . Well, i can say this real quick, we have great candidates. Glenn ivy is a good friend of mine. I think hed make a great congressman. I know derek e. Davis, delegate davis is looking at that. I think hed be great. So we have some great choices there. Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I see what happened here. You did not tell us who youre supporting. We heard that clearly and then youre going to announce it tomorrow. Thank you so much for joining us today. Have a wonderful morning and stay tuned for news4 today. This is brian. Every day, brian drives carefully to work. And every day brian drives carefully to work, there are rate suckers. Hes been paying more for Car Insurance because of their bad driving for so long, he doesnt even notice them anymore. But one day brian gets snapshot from progressive. Now brian has a rate based on his driving, not theirs. Get snapshot and see just how much your good driving could save you. News4 today starts now. A manhunt underway for two convicted killers who used power tools to escape from a jail in new york. Thats just one of the stories were following for you this morning. Good morning. Welcome to news4 today. Im adam tuss. Im molette green in for angie goff. Its sunday, june 7th. Lets go to storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell with your forecast. Its going to be a good one, right . You betcha. Yesterday finished up beautifully out there. Skies remain fairly clear overnight. Were off to a bright and sunny start here this morning. To what promises to be a very pleasant day to be outside today. Temperatures just about average by june standards. Theres the view from our